DB's organic gardens and DIY projects thread.

[ShLUbY]

Haha thanks!
Yep, the balance is all wrong in all my soils and VC at the mo. The fungal side has been weak to nonexistent, and for nutrient cycling I mainly had tons of bacterial feeding / omnivorous nematodes, but hardly any flagellates. And while it's normal to see either the one or the other predominate, I had this hunch it shouldn't mean a complete absence of flagellates as I was seeing in the soil. I did check on populations a few weeks after (I've found taking samples always damages the roots, so I'm trying not to do that all too often), and things aren't sooo much better, but that bit of a shift has seemed to have done it for now
But what really got her started downhill - right at the beginning, in the second week of her life - was the VC- & DE-heavy seedling mix she sprouted in - its water-holding capacity was way too high whilst still being all fluffy, probably leading to anaerobic minisites that got the problems started in the first place
Well now I know it's a mistake to think of VC as being interchangeable with leaf mold, and not to try using DE powder as part of the aeration component (add in amendment-amounts instead)! The joys of learning by doing

oh yeah i could see that mix going anaerobic no doubt. waaaaaaay too much surface area with the DE powder, lots of water holding capacity! Glad you got it all figured out. interesting about the microbe populations. I think that's the next step my garden is going. I need to get a scope though. I was checking out some on ebay a while back and there were some pretty decent deals. I definitely want one i can hook up to a computer so i can scan around the image more easily.

i've definitely been slacking in the compost tea department. i mean, i wasn't even putting them in my re amended mixes. here recently though, i've been doing a few EWC extract teas. who needs to brew? just rinse/massage that shit and all its goodness . I'm definitely going to start taking some extra time to do the teas, but man i've been so dang busy with school.... 3 hour drive each way. so drive on friday, get home in the evening, do a couple chores and im spent. saturday, mostly do homework. Sunday, couple more chores, and it's 3 hours back to school lol. that's literally all the home time i get during the week!

DT has sparked my interest with the insect frass and i'm going to be applying it to the cheese ladies i just flipped over the weekend. This coming weekend i'm gonna hit em with the "bloom mix" so that can start breaking down. then a couple weeks after (prolly week 4) i'm gonna hit em with the insect frass as a topdress as well. these two plants have a lot of potential (they're huge!), i hope they reach every bit of it!!

 

[DonBrennon]

haha i hear you there. i've only had one strain that i had issue with humidity and bud rot. the colas were just enormous and dense. i had bought a tent from a friend, and without realizing how big of a mistake that was, i determined that that's where the mold spores came from cause i'd never had rot issues with that strain until i got the tent. after i ditched it, never had it happen again!

...............hmmnnnn, both my tents are 'borrowed' off a friend, pmsl, sometimes ya' gotta take those risks

One thing I never do tho', is try to grow 'fat cola's', don't get me wrong, I want big buds, but those cola bottle sized things are guaranteed to bring bud rot over here. I honestly can't remember growing a plant that I didn't top, I always prefer more, smaller tops, utilises the lights better to that way too IMO.

 

[DonBrennon]

I have to remind myself that you're British, and thus prone to understatement

No way am I starting a thread haha
You don't want to know what's going on in there in such detail, believe me!

The photoperiod I've got going is a Northern Lights #5 x Haze - I think you've seen her, when she was small and suffering from my misguided actions lol
View attachment 4073642
I ended up solving what looked like multiple nutrient imbalances (which persisted through 2 up-pottings) with a nice watering of hay infusion = handful of hay bubbled for 2 days - brings forth AWESOME aerobic flagellate populations and a crazy nice assortment of bacilli-leaning bacteria!

She got flipped on January 1st, heydiho I forgot she was going to stretch and gave her a 50W COB + 150W HPS (I need the other 3 cobs for the autos also growing in there) though I could've just as well used the MH... but I only thought of that like after 8 days?! haha
so she's stretched
took her out for a picture yesterday (she's horribly cramped in the closet)
3 months of veg, 14 days of 12/12
View attachment 4073640 just 1m tall from the soil, but somehow she's so voluminous! She could easily take up the whole closet space, not just half!
But I really do love her and am happy she'll be around for another while
cheers!

........wow, V nice turn around, she's lovely..............if that's the tree I've supposedly cursed you with, I think you should actually be thankful, LMFAO

Nice info about the hay tea, I've got some around so I'll be giving it a go with the 2-3 wk old seedlings in a week or so...........They've already had a hard life with FGnat and I even found some thrip on them, which has been nipped in the bud I think.

Get a thread started, shit were all adults, I'm sure we've all seen worse than you've got to show us, pmsl. We wanna see more of you microscope vids and explanations.............we need edumacating.

 

[calliandra]

........wow, V nice turn around, she's lovely..............if that's the tree I've supposedly cursed you with, I think you should actually be thankful, LMFAO

Nice info about the hay tea, I've got some around so I'll be giving it a go with the 2-3 wk old seedlings in a week or so...........They've already had a hard life with FGnat and I even found some thrip on them, which has been nipped in the bud I think.

Get a thread started, shit were all adults, I'm sure we've all seen worse than you've got to show us, pmsl. We wanna see more of you microscope vids and explanations.............we need edumacating.

Haha yeah it IS lovely to have her, thing is I don't really have what I'd like her to have - apart from space, aforementioned lights, which I don't really have enough of for such a tall plant!I need to have 3 COBs on the 2 Cosmic Queens next door, and that HPS did OK when I first grew the NLH into that scrog - with the canopy nice and flat and even, but like this?! So my light-headedness may yet come back to haunt me lol
Though I saw today she's starting to flower from below - so now I'm thinking about how the foil partition I improvised is still leaking a bit of a glow from above between the fan and ducts and whatnot up top which I need to leave open for air flow to the filter I won't be partitioning again any time soon, that's for sure!

Ah so you want to see the microoobes!
Here's a nice nematode for you
200x

400x

It could be a predator, but for now I'm still putting it down as an omnivore. In any case, a good guy!
Cheers!

Ah what I actually was going to say! lol
I do think something of what I'm doing now is discouraging fungus gnat propagation? I have a pot of comfrey in the closet too, I had transplanted it into recycled soil in autumn and it was totally infested with fgnats. But they never took a liking to the properly amended soils I have my weed in for propagation, and now the comfrey is getting the same treatment as the others, they're dwindling there too. That pot did get a bit of the hay infusion too... but the neem/kelp juice theyre getting every 10 days or so may play a role in it too.
So yeah, who knows!!
As for the doing, I added a tablespoon of cane molasses (what I had) to the hay as microbial food btw. I was exploring non-aerated before (forget it!), so I have yet to try whether other foods bring forth other populations and such
I just kind of leaned on the moves from making ACT and played it by ear. Nicely aerated, it definitely can't be bad!

 

[DonTesla]

man i dont wanna be like 99 percent of members here and only show my succes i fuked up hard with this ping gravy keep in mind its been commen to have 48c in my tent and caravan so i left the tent doors ope so atleast it was getting fresh air but tje light atractedwhite flys and thay laid eggs on tje leaves i had no mony so i thought fuck it ill just puul of the leaves with eggs on em and keep tje doors closedd not realising it was a light feeder pulling all the leaves off was the fuken dumbest thing i could of done so now 99 percent of ot its burned and dead some new growth is comming thrue bit tbh i think i should jist pull pull it once summers over im gumma pop the last to and grow em in coco the nutes im using im 100 percent sire theres no pgrs like its not harmfull synth shit i need meds and o dont think i know enough about organics once i get this job ill be able 2 put to gether a proper don blend recipe ill be on tho the online store i do use to get dome frass thats fo sure im pretty upset with my self but fuck it we all started some where so far tho this coco is the best iv ever done im getting better at readi g tje plants n shit cant wait to pop tje rwst of tjese gravys im gunna clone em and keep em around for sure

Hey dude, at least you pushed the envelope, got to try a bunch of things, learned a tonne, and most of all, found a home among organic friends .. and you only popped one seed! Thats some mega efficient learning bro, you should be proud.

 

[calliandra]

oh yeah i could see that mix going anaerobic no doubt. waaaaaaay too much surface area with the DE powder, lots of water holding capacity! Glad you got it all figured out. interesting about the microbe populations. I think that's the next step my garden is going. I need to get a scope though. I was checking out some on ebay a while back and there were some pretty decent deals. I definitely want one i can hook up to a computer so i can scan around the image more easily.

i've definitely been slacking in the compost tea department. i mean, i wasn't even putting them in my re amended mixes. here recently though, i've been doing a few EWC extract teas. who needs to brew? just rinse/massage that shit and all its goodness . I'm definitely going to start taking some extra time to do the teas, but man i've been so dang busy with school.... 3 hour drive each way. so drive on friday, get home in the evening, do a couple chores and im spent. saturday, mostly do homework. Sunday, couple more chores, and it's 3 hours back to school lol. that's literally all the home time i get during the week!

DT has sparked my interest with the insect frass and i'm going to be applying it to the cheese ladies i just flipped over the weekend. This coming weekend i'm gonna hit em with the "bloom mix" so that can start breaking down. then a couple weeks after (prolly week 4) i'm gonna hit em with the insect frass as a topdress as well. these two plants have a lot of potential (they're huge!), i hope they reach every bit of it!!

Yeah compost extract is definitely the next best thing to tea!
And even more so when pressed for time as you are!
The tea does have the advantage of really getting the microbes active and also waking up many that are dormant in the compost, but hey, they get what they can get! A student of Elaine's just finished a study where they improved a market garden's soil - and the shift in biology was actually not that great, as compared to the physical marketable results - I think yields of +40%?!
Same with the NLH there, the soil is still not so great,(if you like, I'll share the numbers), and yet ---- tree! lol
A little bit can go a far way!

Looking forward to your sassy frassy girls

 

[giglewigle]

couple days now ill be putting in my order for some beans cant wait defenetly getting some pink gravy lol dont no what else im gunna get so many choices

 

[ShLUbY]

...............hmmnnnn, both my tents are 'borrowed' off a friend, pmsl, sometimes ya' gotta take those risks

One thing I never do tho', is try to grow 'fat cola's', don't get me wrong, I want big buds, but those cola bottle sized things are guaranteed to bring bud rot over here. I honestly can't remember growing a plant that I didn't top, I always prefer more, smaller tops, utilises the lights better to that way too IMO.

i'm the same man. I always top and try and get as many colas into the sweetspot as possible... but this strain in particular was still such large and dense colas even when pruned in this fashion, i still had budrot. i was throwing away 25% of my weight because of it. Sadly, i lost the strain in 2016 when i was battling the PM. i lost a bunch of strains that year come to think of it. but what can you do. that's the way it goes sometimes

 

[Colanoscopy]

I couldn’t resist getting a proven cut back of the purple badlands. Time to get the back of The shed boxed off. Even if I drop about 40cm depth and have the 6ft width I’m winning. Again on a shoestring. The mrs wasn’t happy with me doing it in the house so it’s my only option. Miss tending to a garden too much. I literally starting from nothing this time though. Think I have a Euro reflector here so far ha

 

[Colanoscopy]

6x2x5ft to the eaves another foot to hang the light etc. I am a bit further on with my boarding etc now. It’s a lifting folding false wall

 

[calliandra]

It’s a lifting folding false wall

omg! lol that sounds amazing and the hinge I think I see on that pic... folding as accordion style?!?!